MONDAY 9 SEPTEMBER
A lot of rain fell today - in fact it was
raining on and off throughout daylight hours. Winds were very light though and
as expected, a few passage terns and waders were 'downed' in the
conditions...
First off, one intrepid observer located and
photographed a juvenile CURLEW SANDPIPER at WILSTONE RESERVOIR (HERTS), as it
remained on view from the Drayton Bank Hide until at least 0800 hours. As soon
as I heard it was there from DB and PR, I dashed over - joining both Francis
Buckle and Jack O'Neill in the hide. Apparently, both Mike Campbell and Mig
Wells had connected, but despite an exhaustive search of the reservoir, there
was no further sign of it for us. A COMMON GREENSHANK was nice (photographed by
Lucy Flower yesterday), whilst the juvenile LITTLE RINGED PLOVER had moved up to
the mud in front of the hide. The Black-tailed Godwit that Dave Bilcock had seen
at dawn had also moved on, whilst Mike Wallen had 4 Red Knot fly east early
evening.
Over on the SE shoreline and viewable from
the jetty, the SPOTTED CRAKE was putting on a good performance, feeding out in
the open for at least an hour late morning; all 4 WATER RAIL were there too, as
well as the 2 dredging GARGANEY, 370 Common Teal, 3 Common Snipe, 58 Wigeon and
12 Little Egrets.
Also noted were the 4 HOBBY, the
first-winter LITTLE GREBE, 41 Mute Swans, 37 Northern Pochard, 8 Common Tern and
a migrant flock of 52 House Martins.
I then returned home to dry off (the heavens
opened at the Spotted Crake) but as I recovered, Adam Bassett texted to say that
3 SANDWICH TERNS had flown through SPADE OAK GRAVEL PIT, LITTLE MARLOW (SOUTH
BUCKS), one of which had doubled-back and returned to the spit. I made my way
there and was very pleased to find it asleep with Black-headed Gulls at the very
end of the spit and subsequently took a series of photographs (see below). It
remained for the next hour - certainly long enough for Graham Smith to
connect.
Not much else of note though - the
Bar-headed Goose with the plethora of Greylag and Atlantic Canada Geese, a
single Little Egret, 4 Egyptian Geese and some Great Crested Grebe feeding
young.
I spent the rest of the day at WORMWOOD
SCRUBS LNR (CENTRAL LONDON) where David Lindo had discovered a juvenile Common
Rosefinch on Saturday. The bird had been seen shortly before my arrival but
despite grilling the hawthorns, Buddleia, Elder, Willow and Poplar scrub of the
embankment for over two hours, I failed in my quest to relocate it - 8 Dunnocks,
6 Blackcap, 4 Common Whitethroat, 2 Meadow Pipit and 19 Ring-necked Parakeets
being scant compensation!
A Dunnock in the Blackberry scrub
The London skyline from the Scrubs
